Why was Jamaica disqualified in the 4x400m relay? World Athletics Championships!

From joy to despair for Jamaica as they are disqualified from a medal-winning position on the final day of the World Athletics Championships.

The 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha have now come to an end but the final day of competition was still packed full of drama.

Not only did the USA take three gold medals from the day’s seven events but Team GB also managed to add another medal onto their tally before having it snatched away again.

The manner in which they secured their sixth medal of the competition and had it taken away was marred with controversy as the Jamaican 4×400 women’s team were disqualified from the event in question.

But just why did they suffer such punishment after what appeared to be a clean race?

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4x400m relay initial results

The women’s 4x400m relay was the penultimate event of the 2019 World Athletics Championships.

After dominating the competition, it was the USA who prevailed with a dominating gold medal performance and a time of 3:18.92.

Sneaking into second place was Poland who finished three seconds behind with a time 3:21.89.

Jamaica initially finished third on-track with Sherika Jackson crossing the line on the heels of Poland’s Justyna Święty-Ersetic with Team GB’s Laviai Nielsen falling just short of the medal places in fourth.

However, after holding off the advances of Team GB in the final stretch, Jamaica’s efforts appeared to be in vain.

Why were the Jamaicans disqualified?

The Jamaican team were disqualified from the 4x400m event due to an alleged changeover infringement.

But as we mentioned earlier and if you look at the highlights of the race above, the Jamaican team appeared to have a clean run.

However, on the second handover, the Jamaican runner, Stephanie Anna McPherson, can be seen second from the inside line, something that is supposed to be decided on the race’s running order but at the time, Jamaica were running in fourth, meaning that their third runner, should have been further from the inside line.

Not all bad news for Jamaica

Naturally, the Jamaican team felt hard done by and were quick to lodge an appeal.

Thankfully for the Jamaican team and unfortunately for Great Britain, the decision to disqualify Jamaica was overturned and Team GB’s medal count would remain on five.

It’s disappointing for Great Britain as they will no doubt feel the original decision should have stood.

While the World Athletics Championships are now over, all of the highlights and action can be viewed again over on the IAAF’s YouTube channel and for UK viewers, BBC iPlayer for 30 days following the initial broadcast.